As of this week, I thought I might try a new regime: this post, categorised under DA Reports, will be for people to generally comment about things without spoilers until the answers appear on Monday in The Age.

Post Monday, though, write what you like.

Following this will come a post, filed under DA Confusion, for people who want to ask for some cryptic help. The comments on the next post, obviously, will contain spoilers and you view the comments at your own peril (or generous joy for that matter).

Anyway, we’ll see how this goes for a while.

Update: DA outfoxed me yet again:

I did most of this during a Buck’s day-nighter in between drinks, but even without the alcohol, I don’t reckon I would have got many more of the six that remained unsolved.

A solid DA for mine, yet, unlike the gallery, I found this one tough to boot.

2 down: Old British celebs George and Peter made hotcakes? (11)
Classic: Old British celebs George and Peter = Best Sellers = bestsellers = made hotcakes?

9 across: Broadcast yarns as tutorial?!
Another excellent &lit, and one of DA’s best anagrams (also a good example of why the interrobang needs to come back): broadcast yarns as tutorial?! = Australian Story = broadcast yarns as tutorial?!

14 down: The majority in Test Cricket side organised amphibious challenge (9)
Only DA can hide cryptics instructions so well: the majority in Test Cricket side organised = th in trial on (a reference to the on side in cricket) = tria th l on = triathlon = amphibious challenge.

12 down: Medical specialist now pain-free said another? (11)
Two ologists in the one clue: now pain-free said another? = now – ow said urologist = n eurologist = neurologist = medical specialist.

I figure there’s probably a lot more cool stuff going round that I don’t know about and a lot of stuff you might not know about, so I’m posting this hoping that the word love can be shared all round.

Anyway, here’s what I use, have read or just recommend that’s got something to do with words:

dictionary.com is surprisingly good, and there’s even an iPhone version that you can download so that you’re always carrying a dictionary around with you wherever you go (that is, if you’ve got an iPhone — and on the subject of iPhone software, Stanza is a pretty good e-reader that I’ve read quite a few books on).

Wordnik is a good way to get examples of word usage for unfamiliar words, although it’s not a particularly good dictionary.

The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage settles many of those questions you have about what’s acceptable and what’s not, but more importantly, does so by analysing how people speak and write rather than what some fussy grammarian might say.

I often browse through the humorously-written Q&A section of the Chicago Manual of Style whenever I have an editing issue I need to figure out (and my own editing standards say err on the side of using a hyphen rather than not).

With the British pound so low these days, Book Depository gets you very cheap books delivered to your door shipped for free! I don’t know how they survive, but I’ve bought many books from there and everything has worked out well.

Read Jorge Luis Borges, especially the short stories Library of Babel, Funes, the Memorious and The Garden of Forking Paths, for a finer appreciation of words and what they mean.

I was convinced this one was WC Fields (lands = fields, light = c) until I looked up mercury and discovered its listed in the periodic table as HG: mercury lands in light = HG L and S in neon = HG Nelson = funny people (the theme).

NC makes a good, pedantic point in jest: it should be sixty-six and six repeating percent. We’ll forgive DA on this one, though: sixty-six percent burning = a third alight = Ali G = funny people (the theme).

This one stumped me for a long time, and I think it stumped me for so long because this type of clue I’ve never seen done with the middle letter: major group loves musical jam, lulling hearts = maJor grOup loVes musIcal jAm lulLing hearts = jovial = most funny people.

I thought this one was a little dodge: exercised self-denial mainly = seinfeldal mainly = Seinfeld = funny people (the theme).

Cutting two letters off an anagram with a mainly I thought was stretching things when they’re are so many ways to write a good clue. But Rob in the comments explained why DA did what he did: it’s a reference to the “master of your domain” Seinfeld episode!